OBJ Voices: The write-your-obituary test can reveal character

Thursday

May 27, 2010 at 11:39 PMMay 27, 2010 at 11:42 PM

Trying to fill a vacancy in your organization can be a big burden. Everybody has to work a little harder to pick up the slack, and the boss is saddled with having to write a job description, advertise the position, read endless resumes and go through many time-consuming interviews. I was never very good at the process until one day I went to a networking event where the speaker, an executive recruiter, said some magic words that changed my perspective:"We hire people for what they know. We fire them for who they are."People can learn new skills, she said, but it's hard to change a personality. Once a jerk, always a jerk. It's foolish to turn away an otherwise perfect candidate just because she doesn't know Excel. We should pay less attention to the resume, she said, and focus on the candidate's character and the all-important question of how he or she would fit into our organization. One example of a hire with a big chance of failure would be a candidate who spent years in the prim-and-proper atmosphere of a law office where everyone wore business attire. She would look great on paper, but might be very uncomfortable if the new position is in an advertising agency where dress is casual and people spend their days trying to get creative juices flowing by tossing around a football.Or perhaps you expect the new hire will join the team in working long hours, learning new skills and advancing in the organization. But the candidate is a working mother who just needs a paycheck and her priority is to clock out on time and get home to her kids. Hiring her will frustrate both of you. Of course, both employer and candidate have a stake in finding a good fit, but it's asking a lot in this economic environment to expect a candidate to be that selective. The candidate's focus often is on getting a job - any job -- so the burden of fit falls almost totally on the employer. Armed with this new insight, I began to develop tests to learn about a candidate's character and how they would fit into my organization. As a start, I began letting candidates wait in the reception area for about 20 minutes. This created an opportunity for the candidate to interact with the three secretaries and anyone else who happened to wander to the coffee pot. A candidate will often say things to a receptionist that they won't say during the interview. Later, I debriefed the staff to get their input. Was the candidate impatient? What did she talk about? What impression did she create? I would pick up important clues about how a candidate might fit in. The candidate they referred to as "the cute guy" might be successful, but "the woman in the clown suit" would not stand a chance.When the candidate finally got into my office, I would apologize for the wait and say something like: "It's been a hard day. I have a really good employee but I think she might have stolen something, and I don't know what to do."How would the candidate react? Would she ask questions and try to help solve the problem? Or say: "Sorry you are having a bad day. We can reschedule the interview if you like." Or, perhaps, the candidate would totally ignore my problem and try to focus attention back on the issue at hand: "I didn't mind waiting. I am really excited about the chance to work here. Let me show you some of my previous work."Is it fair to test candidates this way? Yes, I think, if your goal is to explore character and determine how they would fit in your organization. Ultimately, you probably will make a better choice. Many of the jobs I filled were for writing positions, which meant a writing test was in order. I replaced the standard writing test with "write your obituary."Many people would be horrified at that assignment, but a professional writer should appreciate the challenge. So how a candidate reacted told me something about their professionalism. The obituary not only tested their writing skills and speed, but also told me much about them that I was not allowed to ask. (I'm not certain I could get away with this in today's more restrictive legal environment.)Interestingly, the candidates fell into two categories. Most assumed they died at that very moment and wrote about their life to date (pretty boring, usually, for someone in his or her 20s). But for a small minority, their minds worked differently. They decided that their deaths would occur many years in the future, which gave them the chance to fantasize about their life yet to come. That allowed the opportunity for creativity and often humor, characteristics which were important to me. Given that assignment, which would you do?I got some great writing out of this. The best one ever went something like this:"Mary Smith died at her desk today at age 80, hard at work in the public relations office where she had worked for 50 years. "Her boss, Ed Gorin, said 'Mary will really be missed. Hiring her was the best decision I ever made.'"Would you hire Mary? I did.Ed Gorin retired to Ocala from Miami, where he was in the marketing and public relations business and wrote a business networking column for the Miami Herald. Reach him at OcalaEd@gmail.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.